One of the best pleasures in a river cruise is the ability to stop by small towns or villages to see exceptional sights not readily available through road or rail.  Such was our experience in Les Andelys, France.  As our first port of call on the Seine from Paris, this large village with riverfront park hosted picnicking families, older citizens with loyal dogs, and a lone fisherman hopeful for an addition to that night’s supper.  A few quayside streets dominated by a Gothic church, unpriested but nonetheless opened daily by the locals, and shops oriented to visitors, all was pleasantly somnolent on a foggy Sunday morning.   The village had suffered damage from WW II, despite its main asset being an historic glass factory.  Although the church’s stained-glass windows had been protected during bombing by a sandwich of sandbags, many had needed replacement.   Perhaps the town’s historic guardianship of the upper Seine and Paris made it strategically vulnerable.   All locals lived in hom…